This morning Anthem sent agents the grandfathered plan change downgrade matrix for 2018.

This shows which plans are being cancelled and which, if any, grandfathered plans those affected can move to. If they wish to remain grandfathered.

Some plans have grandfathered options, some have no options. If there are no options to move to another grandfathered plan AND you live in an area where Anthem is no longer selling ACA plans, you will have to change to another insurance company for 2018. Remember Anthem is only selling ACA plans in areas 1, 7 & 10 in 2018.

Agents are ready to help you with your 2018 health insurance options. Call your agent, call me, heck, call trump if you want to 😉 Plans scheduled for discontinuation will end on 2/28/2018. Last date to enroll in a new ACA plan is January 31 however to start 2/1 enrollment needs to be completed by January 15th.

California subscribers may have received a letter early in December indicating that their grandfathered Anthem health insurance plan was being cancelled 2/28/18. Apparently some letters were sent in error and those plans are, in fact, not being cancelled.

Correction letters were supposedly sent out 12/8 to notify those subscribers of the error. So be on the lookout if you received a cancellation letter regarding your grandfathered Anthem health plan.

As of today, the only plan I know is being cancelled is the Clear Protection 5000. Some HIPAA plans may also be cancelled.

Anthem is not releasing any information to agents about which plans are being discontinued nor which clients are affected. Nice 🙄

If you have received a cancellation notice and not the subsequent "we goofed" letter, please comment on which plan you are on. Maybe we can figure out the super secret list of plans.

The California Department of Insurance and Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced this morning that the department is seeking to suspend or revoke Wells Fargo's insurance licenses.

Department
alleges Wells Fargo signed up 1,500 consumers for insurance without their
consent Department of Insurance seeking to suspend or revoke its licenses for
alleged improper insurance sales practices related to the company's online
insurance referral program, which resulted in insurance products being
purchased and paid for by consumers without their knowledge. Read the Dept of Insurance Accusation

This year’s largest corporate acquisition will combine one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers, whose national business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans. This merger may signal a change in the delivery of certain healthcare services.

CVS plans to use its low-cost clinics to provide medical services to Aetna’s roughly 23 million medical members. In addition to health clinics and medical equipment, CVS could provide assistance with vision, hearing and nutrition.The merger still needs approval as similar mergers between Aetna & Humana as well as Anthem & Cigna were denied last year. However, in those cases both parties were health insurance carriers, not pharmacy benefit management.